Monday, November 14, 2011

Democracy, Israel’s Left—and Hell?

By Tuvia Brodie

On December 23, 1972, an American football team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, won an important football game with a play that has become one of American football’s greatest plays —one that has been dubbed (by a local Jewish sportscaster) ‘the Immaculate Reception’,coined with reference to another improbable event that is said to have occurred 1,972 years earlier. For some, that football moment in Pittsburgh was impossibly improbable. For others it was improbably impossible. For still others (the losers) it was illegal (read Wikipedia, Immaculate Reception). That cold winter day, Pittsburgh’s stadium held its maximum number of attendees, perhaps 55,000 people. Within five years, as the legend of the ‘Immaculate Reception’ grew, at least 100,000 people swore they had been at the game; within ten years, that impossible number had grown to at least 250,000.

It’s the same with democracy. Lots of people claim they’ve got it; but as we know from great sports stories, few understand the truth (Wikipedia, ibid). Take the American protest group, Occupy Wall Street, for example. According to reports in the Weekend edition of Europe Wall Street Journal (October 28-30, 2011), real democracy—at least, on the streets of New York City-- doesn’t actually work. As the New York City protest tent city grew, and as protesters protested against anyone telling them what to do, an informal democracy took shape. Some protesters proudly announced that they had created a real democracy—until it broke down. As one disappointed protester explained, their democracy didn’t work: every decision—from trash to tents—required long, torturous and time-consuming debate, much of which was inane or irrelevant to the issue at hand. Nothing was getting accomplished. Then the protesters, trying their best to build their democracy, decided that a tax of 50% on tips to street musicians was fair; the irony of these protesters-against-the unfair ordering a 50% tax didn’t seem to occur to them.

The street musicians, however, complained that their new 50% tax was unfair. They talked about taxation without representation. The protesters didn’t catch the fact that they had just committed a taxation sin similar to the one that had sparked the original American Revolution. The protesters were just trying to be democratic; you know, to show grown-ups what a real democracy could do. The musicians were not amused.

In Israel, democracy isn’t much better. The greatest advocate for democracy in Israel is the Jewish Left. They love democracy.They want to protect it—against other Jews. Their commitment is impressive. They help Arabs. They fight Jews. They hate Rabbis.Israel’s ‘democracy’ advocates believe that democracy and religion are incompatible: for them, no democracy can have religion and democracy at the same time in the same place—and if they were in charge they would get rid of religion. Of course, that’s not how life works in real democracies like America or England; in these older political systems, the State supports and protects religion. Israel’s Left seems to have missed this part of democracy.Could their ‘democracy’ be flawed?

Israel’s Left sounds like Roger Maris. Remember him? He broke a long-standing American baseball record, babe Ruth's single season home-run record. But authorities put an asterisk beside his name because his new record wasn’t‘good’ enough It was flawed (Ed. note: The same multiplier effect is in play here similar to the Immaculate Reception; i.e. there were 10,000 people or less at the game where Maris broke the record due to the press' hostility to Maris at having the audacity to take on a record that should've been broken by their "loved one"; i. e. Mickey Mantle. They were also egged on by then baseball commissioner Ford Frick who was Babe Ruth's biographer. Yet hundreds of thousands now claim to have been there). It’s the same in Israel: the Left says that democracy means equality. But their actions tell a different story:everyone is equal but some are more equal than others—and some –the religious--just aren’t good enough. They are too flawed to be included.

Democracy in America doesn’t work like that. In America, there are no asterisks for religion. So what’s going on in Israel? Simply this: the advocates for ‘democracy’ in Israel protect those who would destroy us; they attack those who would protect us; and in order to concentrate better on all of this ‘democracy’ , they reject their Jewish religion—you know, to show non-Jews how a real democracy works.

Unfortunately, this is not as easy as it looks. As the Left sells its‘democracy’, it struggles: Leftists forget they’re Jewish, they act like they’re Arab and they encourage the world to hate us. For the sake of ‘democracy’, they cheer when the UN votes against Israel, they call for international sanctions against us and announce that anyone who opposes them is dragging the nation to Hell. Hell? What does Hell have to do with democracy? Look at Haaretz online: almost daily you’ll see a Leftist political column called, ‘On the Road to Hell’. Why is the Left talking about Hell? Are they that worried about their future?

Seems like the Left could use their own ‘Immaculate Reception’, some impossibly improbable event to prove they are right. This approach, however, could be flawed: once you reject religion, you’re really not in a position to look for miracles.

This is disturbing. There is no one in America I know who agrees that such behaviour fits the definition of‘good citizenship’, and I can’t find any intelligent American non-Jew who defines ‘democracy’ as attacking your religion and endorsing your enemy. Only Jews talk like this. The people I talk to call this type of behaviour ‘treason’, not democracy.

Well, maybe this is why the Left worries about Hell. It might also be why putting an asterisk next to their ‘democracy’ might be a good idea. At the very least, it might remind us again about that American baseball hero, Roger Maris; you know, to tell the world that some things—Maris’ record and the Left’s ‘democracy’-- just aren’t good enough.

Who knows? Maybe an asterisk is all the Left needs to stay out of Hell.